Gentle Parenting
The gentle parent approach to parenting has been, perhaps, one of the hardest things to do. It takes a large deal of patience, self control, and understanding. But we did our research and fully believe that this is the best approach to parenting.
We have to remind ourselves daily that he isn’t doing anything to hurt or annoy us. He is just a small human with large emotions far beyond his comprehension.
We don’t smack, we don’t yell, we don’t do time-out, and we don’t allow him to cry-it-out (unless he’s processing). Daily we fight the urge to yell or smack out of frustration or fear; unsurprisingly, they’re among people’s first reactions.
We take time, we allow him to process his feelings, we validate his emotions and we talk him through everything. When he has a tantrum, we get down to his level and try to talk him through, even though we have a clear communication barrier at the moment. We remind him that we’re there, that he is allowed his feelings, and that he can express them without ‘getting in trouble’.
We don’t say ‘be careful’ where we can, we try to explain what could happen or help him work out the next move; this allows him to explore without instilling a sense of fear at new experiences.
We practice extended rear-facing, the ‘just say yes’ philosophy, cloth nappies, and attachment parenting. We’re doing our best to raise a kind, loving, adventurous human, and sometimes I need to remind myself that we’re doing an amazing job.
